Why “Poisson d’avril” Is Not “April Fish”

Most people would agree conceptually that word-for-word translations are not the way to go, yet so many clients go looking for the original French in the English translation just to make sure nothing was left out and no mistakes were made. This could potentially lead to better translations if the client and translator work as a team, but it can also lead to translations that sound way too much like the original.

Here are some examples of translations that are better off not being taken literally.